St Andrew's Anglican Lismore

St Andrew's Anglican Church
Lismore

1914 British Pianoforte Co., Sydney
2 manuals, 15 speaking stops, 4 couplers, tubular-pneumatic action
Renovation and addition 1957 H.W. Jarrott, Brisbane. Further additions 1960s, Grant Virtue, Bexhill
Restored W.J. Simon Pierce, Brisbane, 1996
2 manuals, 19 speaking stops, 4 couplers, tubular-pneumatic action

Historical and Technical Documentation by Kelvin Hastie
© OHTA 1998 (updated June 2024)

Mr Henry Woodham, representative of The British Pianoforte Depot Ltd, was responsible for erecting the two manual and pedal organ in this church in 1914. The instrument, located in a chamber on the south side of the chancel, features a secondary case in the adjacent transept. The organ had been designed and built by Ernst Ladegast of Sydney. The metal pipework was supplied by Alfred Palmer and Sons in London and action components by Laukhuff. Parish records reveal the cost to have been £888.19.-, a sum that represented two years' stipend for the rector of the time. The opening recital was given by the organist of Christ Church Cathedral Newcastle, Mr Thomas H. Massey, on 13 July of that year. Mr Woodham maintained this instrument of 15 stops from the day of its installation until the 1950s.¹

Following the retirement of Mr Woodham, the firm of H.W Jarrott, of Brisbane, took over maintenance of the organ and in 1957 overhauled the instrument, while adding a Pedal Bass Flute 8' by extension. Further tonal modifications were brought about in the 1960s by Mr Grant Virtue who removed the original Great Clarionet 8', the Swell Lieblich Bourdon 16' and Viol d'Orchestre 8' for upperwork.

By the 1980s it became apparent that a major overhaul would be required. At one stage the organ's replacement by an electronic substitute was even contemplated. However, this drastic measure never eventuated. In November 1992, the Parish Council authorised a committee to investigate the restoration of the organ. By good fortune a grant of $25,000 was received from the Heritage Council of NSW and a restoration contract was awarded in 1994 to W.J. Simon Pierce, of Brisbane, with Kelvin Hastie as consultant. The local project manager was Mr Howard Brockington, of Lismore. The restoration was staged over two years, thus enabling various sections of the organ to remain playable during the period of the project. The work included the complete overhaul of the original "Kegellade" (cone pallet) chests, the releathering of the three original single-rise bellows, restoration of the tubular-pneumatic key, piston and stop actions, with open metal pipework restored retaining cone tuning, where extant. New cone-pallet chests were constructed to accommodate the additions retained from the work carried out by Grant Virtue.²

Some of the stops removed in the 1960s were replaced by Forster & Andrews pipework dating from 1881, originally in the old organ at the Great Hall, University of Sydney. (Most of the pipework from that organ had been kept in storage at Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, Grafton, and prior to that at a private residence in Wentworthville. The organ was displaced from the Great Hall by an instrument built in 1972 by Rudolf von Beckerath, of Hamburg). The present specification is:³

1 Graeme D. Rushworth, Historic Organs of New South Wales: the instruments, their makers and players, 1791-1940 (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1988), 155.

2 Kelvin Hastie, "Restorations – St Andrew's Anglican Church, Lismore, NSW", OHTA News, 21/2: April 1997, 11-13.

3 Brockington, Howard, 'Organ Restoration Project: St Andrew's Anglican Church, Lismore', Sydney Organ Journal, Autumn 1998, 12-14.